MTG finally has a ninja Commander who doesn’t stink

Ninjas have been part of Magic: The Gathering since 2005 as a part of the Kamigawa block, a sequence of three units with playing cards impressed by Japanese mythology. That set launched each ninjas and the cleverly designed ninjutsu means, which helps your creatures sneak previous enemy defenses to land decisive blows by taking the spot of one other unblocked attacker.

Within the twenty years since, Magic has launched lots extra ninjas, notably in 2022 with Neon Dynasty, which returned to the world of Kamigawa whereas giving it a contemporary cyberpunk coat of paint. And but, in all these years, we nonetheless do not have an awesome creature to guide your ninja Commander deck — till now.

To chop to the chase, the cardboard I am speaking about is Splinter, Radical Rat from Magic‘s most up-to-date Universes Beyond crossover set, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. However earlier than I get into what makes Splinter such an awesome Commander, it is value explaining why the earlier choices are so weak by comparability.

The most well-liked ninja Commander is undoubtedly Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow, who allows you to flip attacking ninjas into each card draw and direct injury. Nevertheless, the rationale Yuriko is so well-liked is generally as a result of her “Commander Ninjutsu” means will get round Commander tax. (Within the years since, the cardboard’s designer has repeatedly admitted this was a mistake.) Yuriko makes for a deck that is extra finicky than enjoyable, no less than in my expertise.

One other well-liked possibility is Satoru Umezawa from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. Satoru’s entire factor is giving each creature in your hand ninjutsu, making it doable to sneak out expensive-but-powerful monsters for reasonable. He is a robust Commander, however the very best decks constructed round him do not really want some other ninjas to work; they simply want small unblockable creatures and stupidly robust beaters. (One other enjoyable one is Goro-Goro and Satoru from 2023’s March of the Machine, which leverages ninjutsu to create dragon tokens; {powerful}, however probably not a ninja deck both.)

Unsurprisingly, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is filled with ninjas, too. Most aren’t constructed round enjoying different ninjas, as a substitute leaning into the distinct personalities of the varied Turtles. Dark Leo & Shredder is a very {powerful} Commander if you wish to construct a ninja deck (arguably too {powerful}), however Splinter, Radical Rat strikes the correct steadiness of robust card design and a enjoyable synergy to construct round.

Splinter’s main means doubles the triggered skills of ninjas you management. LIke any good instructor, Splinter nurtures and encourages the skills of his college students, relatively than utilizing them as pawns in some diabolical grasp plan.

This creates a ton of worth out of your different ninjas, which continuously set off particular bonuses once they deal fight injury to a different participant (for instance, Fallen Shinobi, the most effective ninjas in my deck, who steals playing cards out of your enemy’s library every time he offers injury to a participant). The TMNT set additionally provides a bunch extra choices, like Karai, Future of the Foot, who brings a creature again from the useless (or two creatures because of Splinter’s means), or Super Shredder, who will get uncontrolled quick. You possibly can even reap the benefits of Splinter with tools that provides your ninjas new skills; I added Goldvein Pick for additional treasure and Sword of Sinew and Steel for artifact destruction (and since I received my palms on this cool TMNT variant).

A whole lot of these ninja skills require attacking or dealing injury. Fortunately, Splinter has you coated there, too. His second means allows you to spend two mana (one blue and one colorless) to quickly make any ninja unblockable, giving them the sneaky benefit they want.

All of it provides as much as a robust new Commander who’s not too finicky or too {powerful}. Splinter, Radical Rat makes for a slick ninja deck that is enjoyable to play. Twenty years later, Magic: The Gathering lastly has the ninja mascot it deserves — even when that mascot comes from a very totally different franchise.

Take a look at my decklist here. It isn’t optimized — I simply threw collectively no matter I had mendacity round.